Sports Update » Pittsburghhttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate
Blogging special sports events and storiesTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:24:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.3Week 10: College Football Pick ‘Emhttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/11/week-10-college-football-pick-em/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/11/week-10-college-football-pick-em/#commentsThu, 03 Nov 2011 20:57:52 +0000http://blog.chron.com/owls/?p=4527
See who our college football writers and reader panel pick in Week 10 games involving Conference USA schools and national games. Give us your score predictions for the Rice-UTEP and Houston-UAB games.]]>Throughout the season, Chronicle college football writers Joseph Duarte and Sam Khan Jr., along with an eight-member reader panel, will pick games involving Conference USA teams and select national games.

Before we dive into the picks, it’s time for me to offer my Week 10 prediction for the Rice game against UTEP.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/11/week-10-college-football-pick-em/feed/2Thoughts from new Cougar hooper J.J. Richardsonhttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/05/thoughts-from-new-cougar-hooper-j-j-richardson/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/05/thoughts-from-new-cougar-hooper-j-j-richardson/#commentsFri, 20 May 2011 00:02:24 +0000http://blog.chron.com/cougars/?p=2248The route that J.J. Richardson took back to his hometown isn’t an usual one.

I’ve seen plenty of players go through similar circumstances. A player gets recruited out of high school by several programs, some of them big-name, nationally-ranked programs in their respective sports and decide that it’s the right thing for them. But for one reason or another, whether it’s playing time or getting homesick, it turns out not to be what they thought it would be.

Richardson said he has no regrets (photo: Pittsburgh athletics)

The Panthers, who were ranked No. 1 at the time they were recruiting Richardson, a 6-7, 240-pound power forward out of Hightower High School, were one of many suitors for Richardson’s services. In addition to Pitt, Richardson said he was recruited by Oklahoma State, Utah, Utah State, San Diego State, Penn State, several West Coast Conference schools and several mid-major programs in Texas.

Richardson, who transferred to UH this week, said he has no regrets though. He believes that everything happens for a reason and said he has no ill feelings or regrets about going to Pittsburgh, where he received only limited playing time the last two seasons.

“If that’s the school you choose, you shouldn’t have any regrets about it,” Richardson said. “Everything happens for a reason. I don’t think me being there was nothing negative. I got nothing but positive things out there and it really helped me mature. You just follow your gut feeling on where you want to go and not what somebody’s telling you.”

Coming out of high school, Richardson wanted to get away from home. Like many kids, he felt it would be good for him as part of the college experience. And the prestige that Pittsburgh presented along with its success was too good to pass up.

“It was a high-powered basketball program,” Richardson said. “The coaching staff and the players were the biggest thing for me, plus how close everyone was. The tradition they had and hard workers were something that I was attracted to.”

But as time went by and Richardson didn’t get a ton of playing time as well as being away from family, his thoughts started to change, which is why he decided to transfer. Still, it was a mutual parting of the ways with no hard feelings, according to Richardson.

Richardson said working with coach Jamie Dixon was a huge benefit to him, as well as playing in the Big East, which is widely thought of as the toughest basketball conference nationally.

“Just the IQ of the game; Jamie Dixon is an excellent coach,” Richardson said. “Every day in practice he taught us so many aspects of the game. I can really take that and contribute in a major way, whether it be my first year in practice (at UH) and getting them better or making me better.”

Richardson said that UH did not recruit him out of high school, otherwise he would have considered the Cougars. In fact, Richardson’s first time on campus was last weekend when he took a visit to Cullen Boulevard to see what the school was all about.

“I had never been on the campus before,” Richardson said. “I was shocked. It’s a real nice campus, real big, and a lot of nice buildings. The campus life, coaching staff and the players what I really became attracted to.”

Richardson chose UH over Tulsa and Charlotte. Now that he’ll be donning the scarlet and white, he sees a bright future ahead.

“I see UH having a complete upside, a huge upside,” Richardson said. They brought in a whole new coaching staff and there are some good players that are coming in. I think things can make a complete (180) and be like UH used to be.”

The Hightower product, who has spent the last two seasons at Big East power Pittsburgh, committed to the Houston on Friday night and will transfer to UH according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Richardson, who is 6-7, 235, is a back-to-the-basket power forward and will add some post presence to the Cougars starting in 2012-13. Per NCAA transfer rules, Richardson must sit out a season.

He has come off the bench at Pitt the last two seasons, playing in 45 games in his two years there. This season he played in 23 games and averaged 1.1 points and 0.9 rebounds in 5.3 minutes per game. At Hightower, Richardson was part of a district championship Hurricane squad in 2009 and averaged 8.6 points and 5.1 rebounds as a senior.

The acquisition of Richardson will mark the third player the Cougars have picked up this spring. They signed guard LeRon Barnes and forward Leon Gibson to letters of intent already.

That leaves UH with one scholarship to give. The spring signing period ends May 18 so if they’re going to sign another high school player or junior college prospect, they’d have to do so by next Wednesday. That deadline does not apply to other Division I transfers, such as Richardson. The Cougars could save the scholarship for the next signing class in November or of course they could utilize it in the coming months if they uncover another transfer.